MOSCOW: Tributes poured in Monday for Natalia Fileva, co-owner of Russia's second largest airline S7 who died in a jet crash in Germany, where aviation specialists from Moscow were headed to assist the probe.
Fileva, 55, died Sunday along with her father and the pilot when her six-seater aircraft crashed near Frankfurt, said the airline, the main rival to Russia's flagship carrier Aeroflot.
Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee said it would help the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation to probe the tragedy.
"The group is getting ready to fly out to Germany very shortly," a spokeswoman said.
The six-seater aircraft went down in a field while flying from France to Egelsbach south of Frankfurt, German police said.
The business jet belongs to Globus Airlines run by S7 Group which also controls S7.
Fileva, whose husband is S7 CEO Vladislav Filev, was listed in 2018 by Forbes magazine as the fourth richest woman in Russia with an estimated fortune of $600 million.
Police said the aircraft was completely burnt out and the victims would probably only be formally identified in the coming week.
S7 Group said the circumstances of the tragedy "were not yet known."
The company praised its chief as a "bright, caring leader and great person."
Fileva and her husband built the company from scratch, turning it into what some observers call Russia's most efficient airline.
S7 Group, a rare case of a successful family business in Russia, has been seeking to branch out into space, establishing Russia's biggest private space company, S7 Space.
Last year the company bought Sea Launch, a floating satellite launcher.
- 'Great enthusiast' -
Russian space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin called Fileva a "great aviation and space enthusiast."
"Her death is a personal tragedy for us all," he said on Twitter.
"They are completely decent businesspeople and built all of their business with their own hands," independent media outlet The Bell quoted a former chief of the presidential administration, Alexander Voloshin, as saying.
Initially called Sibir (Siberia), it re-branded itself as S7 in 2005 after two major disasters involving its planes.
The Association of Air Transport Operators said Fileva helped develop much of the legislation for the country's commercial aviation.
She helped create "favourable economic conditions for all domestic airlines without exception", said the industry group.
Oleg Panteleyev, executive director at aviation consultancy Aviaport, said Fileva's passing was a "major loss -- not just for the company but for the entire industry and the country's entrepreneurial community."
He said it was too early to say how the tragedy would affect the company but said it was financially stable.
"This is one of the most profitable companies in Russia," Panteleyev told AFP. "S7's position looks unshakable."
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